David Corkery: Munster must invest in grassroots so they don't have to rely on expensive imports

With nine losses from their last 13 outings, Munster march into tomorrow’s Challenge Cup play-off with far more questions hanging over them than they have given answers for all season.

I firmly believe Munster have been very poorly managed and run over the last decade or so, but we’ll get to that later in this article. Let’s concentrate on the rugby for now and deal with the rest later on.

Normally, at this time of the year, the Munster supporters are gearing up for a few rounds of helter-skelter European action. That is not the case this time as participating in the second tier is certainly not as attractive as mixing it with the bigger boys in the elite competition.

Famed for their ability to smother the towns and cities of Europe’s greatest rugby teams with friendship and fun, it will be very interesting tomorrow to see just how many will make the trip across the pond to the not-so-exciting setting of Exeter.

Exeter, which dates back to Roman times, is picturesque in its own right but in terms of rugby history and folklore, it is a far cry from Toulouse, Toulon, Bath or even Dublin for that matter.

However, in saying that they did manage to win the Champions Cup back in 2020.

Currently, they occupy fourth spot in their domestic table, but as we all know, English rugby is as fickle as Irish weather when it comes to consistency and the difference between playing on a European stage and a domestic one is like comparing night to day.

Exeter, or the Chiefs as they are affectionately known, certainly won’t lie down to have their bellies tickled. Yet unless Munster decide to leave their A game on the bus, I’d like to think that Clayton McMillan and his players will be looking forward to a quarter-final against Benetton or Cardiff.

Two weeks ago, Munster managed to break all kinds of statistical records by registering a 45-0 scorecard against South Africa’s Sharks. The only problem with this is that the blank part belonged to Munster.

UNACCEPTABLE

I have no idea how this is even possible but somehow Munster failed to record a single point over the 80 minutes. There may be some mitigating circumstances to consider, but not to have landed a single point is simply unacceptable.

Thankfully, they pulled their socks up a week later against the Vodacom Bulls and with the return of internationals Jack Crowley, Craig Casey, and Jeremy Loughman, they played as we would expect any Munster side to do.

They still lost, but at least they fought from start to finish and managed to salvage two losing bonus points.

The mad dog, Munster red mist wasn’t quite where it needed to be on this occasion, but hopefully the upward trend will continue on Saturday and the players will once again experience what a winning dressing room feels like.

The team’s mediocre performances have been surpassed by the decisions being made by those running the club. Munster, just like Leinster, Connacht, and Ulster, is a branch of the IRFU and sought voluntary redundancies from a group of staff while the team was in South Africa.

It is not clear at this stage how many jobs will be lost after staff were summoned to a meeting where chief executive Ian Flanagan outlined the terms.

Flanagan flew back early from South Africa to dispense the news to the staff and it would have come as a massive shock to everyone involved, including the players.

I would question the timing of the announcement, but I guess there is no good time to be announcing news like this. For me, holding off until the end of the season might have been a better policy.

I realise that the professional game is an insatiable beast when it comes to money, but what they are doing now is cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Every dog on the street knows that the numbers at the grassroots of the sport are diminishing at a very worrying rate. Unless these can be grown and nurtured, the game at the top will only become more and more expensive to maintain.

INVESTMENT

What the game in Ireland needs now more than ever is investment at the underage level in the clubs, schools and universities so we don’t have to look at overseas players who cost an absolute fortune to sign.

For me, the only way that Munster will ever get back to feasting at the top table again is if they go back to their roots and look to build from within.

I was criticised for calculating that something like this was going to happen many years ago but rather than sitting back and saying, I told you so, I somehow wish I was wrong.

I thought we had reached the bottom, but it looks like there is worse to come.